In Florida it is usually seasonal humidity moving the door and the face frame at different rates, on top of hinge screws that have worked loose. European hinges adjust in three directions with a screwdriver — it is a ten minute fix, not a cabinet problem.
Why yours move and your friend's up north do not
Wood takes on moisture from the air and swells, and gives it back and shrinks. Our indoor humidity swings between an air-conditioned dry winter and a wet summer where the AC is fighting 90% outside. Solid wood and veneered doors move at different rates from the plywood or particleboard boxes they hang on, and the hinge sits at the junction of those two.
Add a door that gets opened a dozen times a day and the screws slowly back out. Two millimetres of movement at the hinge is five millimetres of visible misalignment at the far edge of the door.
Fix it in the right order
1. Tighten every screw
Both the screws holding the hinge plate to the cabinet and the ones holding the hinge to the door. Do the whole kitchen, not just the offending door. If a screw spins without biting, the hole is stripped — glue a matchstick or a golf tee in, let it set, redrive.
2. Then adjust, using the right screw
Modern concealed hinges adjust on three axes and each screw does one job:
- The rear screw moves the door in and out (depth), which sets how it sits against the frame.
- The front screw moves it side to side, which is what closes an uneven gap between a pair of doors.
- The mounting plate screws move it up and down.
Work on one door at a time, quarter turns, and close it after every adjustment. Two doors that meet in the middle should be adjusted as a pair or you will chase the gap back and forth all afternoon.
3. If it still will not sit right
Look at the cabinet itself rather than the door. A base cabinet that has settled out of level, or a sink base whose bottom has swollen from a slow leak, throws every door hung on it. Put a level on the face frame. If the box is out, no amount of hinge adjustment fixes it permanently.
The one that is not adjustable
A door that has visibly bowed or cupped across its width has moved as a slab of timber, and hinges cannot straighten it. That is a replacement door. It is also the argument for painted MDF or good quality thermofoil doors in a humid climate — they are more dimensionally stable than solid wood, which is not what people expect to hear.
Worth doing once a year
Run round the whole kitchen with a screwdriver each autumn when the humidity drops. Ten minutes, and it prevents the slow drift that eventually has you convinced the kitchen needs replacing.